Rugby 2004 - one year on

Ok, when Rugby 2004 came out most people hated it. Not me, I was blinded to it's crappiness just because of the fact it was the first rugby game in 3 years, and had so many features. Then a while later I realised it was mostly crap, and in the last couple of days I've had a few matches so one year on here are my views....

The Good (yes there is good)
Quantity - players, teams, stadia, tournaments etc. Compared to any other rugby union title Rugby 2004 blows them away in terms of quantity.

Set plays - (also feature in The Bad). While most of these are crap (from scrum anyway) there are some cool ones. With a bit more slickness, and fluidity between the move and then you taking control these could be very good. The lineouts were arguably the best lineout system ever. Quick throws and it would be without doubt. To improve on this, this would be my system on PS2.
Throwing team: Pick number of players (2-7, using D-pad to pick)
Throwing team: Select jumpers (up to 4, each jumper getting a key (X, O, Square, Triangle). Hold a button (eg R2) to hide the selector so your opponent can not see who the jumpers are.
Opposing Team: Select jumpers (up to 4, each jumper getting a key (X, O, Square, Triangle). Hold a button (eg R2) to hide the selector so your opponent can not see who the jumpers are.
Then the lineout will show up, keys above each jumper will be visible to all.
Then the original Rugby 2004 system will start (ie press and hold X, press down to jump, release X).
Hold L1 to catch the ball, continue holding for a maul to form, otherwise it will be tapped.

Franchise - This was the first rugby game to actually have this, even if it was extremely basic.

Rucks - I liked the system where they had R3. If they make this system better (eg so I don't get penalised for hands in the ruck when there is clearly no ruck) this could be really good.

Sin Binnings - Again, just the first rugby game to have it. It was also good how sometimes the players were just warned.

Injuries - First rugby game to have real injuries (Rugby 2001 injuries sucked). Some more animations, and injuries that are related to what you see (at the moment they only have 3 animations, if they have more, and show players holding their ankle, and then after the match say something like rahrah has broken their ankle, they will be unavailable for between x and y amount of weeks.

Subsitutions - I liked the animations they had for these.

Before game animations - I liked these, and thought they were quite realistic with the warming up and all. If the teams came out one at a time, and they brought up the team list then, and then talked about a few players rather than the whole list it would be good. Oh, and get rid of the soccer style team photo section.

Originally posted by All_Blacks_Hurricanes_Lions_Fan@Sep 5 2004, 04:05 PMI just loved the S12 and the player editor

Click to expand...

the player editor feature sounded good, but was probably the worst ever seen! not being able to change height, weight, jersey etc... fifa 2005 looks really good in this department, changing anything from length of nose and many other facial features... also accessories like tape and head bands etc

the player editor feature sounded good, but was probably the worst ever seen! not being able to change height, weight, jersey etc... fifa 2005 looks really good in this department, changing anything from length of nose and many other facial features... also accessories like tape and head bands etc [/b]

the player editor feature sounded good, but was probably the worst ever seen! not being able to change height, weight, jersey etc... fifa 2005 looks really good in this department, changing anything from length of nose and many other facial features... also accessories like tape and head bands etc

haha yeah and "Hes off they are not going to catch him", " Tackled 20 metres short of the line by Mark Robinson" lol bad commentating! honestly i think if they had improved the commentating and the pl,ayer creation, my perception of the game would have been so much better!!

a year on and rugby 2004 is still not worth playing the gameplay is what holds it back. Sure the quanity of the leagues and stuff is great but its not enjoyable to play. The only thing good about rugby 2005 commentary is in the options menu where you select off. The commentary in nrl is very good

Originally posted by Gay-Guy@Sep 7 2004, 07:05 PMWell some good things came out of it....a few web sites and I think from my memory even the formation of the rugby forum, though correct me if I am wrong.

Click to expand...

Nah the rugbyforum was already here its just that heaps of us went nuts when we heard about it

haha i was here when this place was almost totaly fixed on Rugby 2004. I couldnt beleive that it was going to be that bad even though we were told so many times by lots of people before it was released. I was so let down. Damn you EA!!!!